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A Confederacy of Dunces
A Confederacy of Dunces '' is a novel by American author John Kennedy Toole , published in 1980, eleven years after the author committed suicide. Through the efforts of Toole's mother Thelma and writer Walker Percy (who wrote the foreword) the book was still publishing. It quickly gained cult status and is now an important part of the " canon "of South American literature . Toole won in 1981 posthumously the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The title is derived from a line of Jonathan Swift (from ''Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting ): When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him. The story is set in New Orleans in the early sixties. The main character, Ignatius J. (Jacques) Reilly , an intelligent but lazy man in his thirties still living in a residential area of the city, with his mother and family who are forced by circumstances to find a job. In his search for work, he meets a variety of colorful characters from New Orleans' French Quarter . " Toole wrote the novel in 1963, during his last months in Puerto Rico . Content [ hide ] *1 Main Characters **1.1 Ignatius J. Reilly **1.2 Myrna Minkoff **1.3 Irene Reilly *2 Ignatius at the movies *3 , the structure of the book *4 The difficult path to publication *5 Notes Characters [ edit ] Ignatius J. Reilly [ edit ] Ignatius Jacques Reilly is a kind of modern Don Quixote -eccentric, idealistic and a little crazy. In his preface, Walker Percy describes him as "a slob, a mad Oliver Hardy , a fat Don Quixote, a perverse Thomas Aquinas crammed into a man. " He hates modernity, particularly pop culture and disgust, his obsession: he goes to the film to make jokes about and express the lack of "anger theology and geometry "in the contemporary world. He lacks the scholasticism of the Middle Ages , especially Boethius . [1] On the other hand, he enjoys the comforts and conveniences of the modern world and takes to the Rednecks of the country, all of modern technology hating and advancement associate . That Ignatius has a broad imagination becomes clear by the fact that he ascribes a prophetic role to his stomach doorman, a body that food is piped to the intestines. He identifies with Cassandra , a Greek mythological figure who had a gift of prophecy by Apollo , in exchange for a night together. Snakes licked her ears clean so that she could hear the future, but when she refused to sleep with Apollo, he put a curse on her so no one would believe her. Predictions [2] Ignatius does not believe that he is part of this world. His social failures are the work of higher powers. He thinks Fortuna , goddess of luck has turned bad for him at the wheel of fortune . Ignatius loves to eat and his (sexual) fantasies sometimes go crazy ways. Obscene pictures makes it ridiculous to protect. Senses are at their stimulating effect Although he sees himself as someone with a sweeping view of the world he sees it sit to leave his birthplace and he bores friends and strangers with whom he makes reference conversations about a failed trip to Baton Rouge with a Greyhound bus, a traumatic (for him) experience , "extreme horror". Myrna Minkoff [ edit ] Myrna Minkoff, by Ignatius as "that minx" appointed a Jewish beatnik from New York Ignatius met when she was in New Orleans at the university. Although their political, social, religious and personal beliefs completely opposite both have a fascination for each other. The book refers to their joint attack on the subject matter of their teachers at the university. In most of the novel she appears in the frequent correspondence that the two maintained since she returned to New York, a correspondence filled with sexual analysis of her and her disgust for his sacrilegious behavior. Officially, they deplore both each other's behavior, but-although neither admits that, actually, they are constantly trying to impress each other. Irene Reilly [ edit ] Mrs. Irene Reilly, Ignatius' mother (21 years old widowed). Initially she gives Ignatius space and rides him wherever it wants to go, but, as the book progresses she learns to come up for themselves. They drink something too happy Muscat, something Ignatius exaggerates the proportion of 'heavy alcoholic. She falls in love with Claude Robichaux, a wealthy man. At the end of the book, she decides to marry after she stops Ignatius in an asylum with him. Ignatius at the movies [ edit ] Toole describes how comically Ignatius goes to the movies. Although he does not mention the names they can be recognized as Billy Rose's Jumbo and That Touch of Mink , both Doris Day movies of 1962. [3] In another passage, Ignatius refused a "graze praised Swedish drama go looking, about a man who loses his soul. " This is probably Ingmar Bergman 's Winter Light , released in 1962. Further on in the book Mrs. Reilly remembers the night when Ignatius was conceived: after she and her husband Red Dust had seen, released in October 1932. This would mean that Ignatius was born around July 1933, since he is 30 years old in the book is probably the book is set in 1963. The structure of the book [ edit ] The structure of A Confederacy of Idiots matches Ignatius 'favorite book, Boethius' On the Consolation of Philosophy . The book has chapters and subchapters. Important parts are placed 'outside' the story. In "Consolation" narrative pieces alternate with metrical verse. In "Conspiracy", the narrative also poetic and are pieces of Ignatius' diary and letters between him and Myrna processed. Much of the narrative style and the plot is straight out of Toole About the consolation of philosophy copied. Certain aspects of the book reflect Toole's experiences in real life. For example, the two jobs that Ignatius has: hot-dog vendor and employee in a pants factory. Toole worked after graduating from Tulane in a factory where trousers were fabricated. His days he was often in New Orleans 's "French Quarter", where he helped a friend with a food stall. After graduating Toole also lived with his "overprotective" mother. Alternatively, the author was the opposite of Ignatius, as Toole loved to travel and was known as neat and 'well dressed'. The difficult path to publication [ edit ] As described above, the book was never published as Toole's mother had taken after his suicide (at age 31). A copy of Toole's home in 1969 Thelma Toole was persistent and, despite many rejections, continue to go along publishers.She called repeatedly Walker Percy on an author and professor at Loyola University New Orleans, claiming that he had read the manuscript. At first he refused, as in the preface states: "... she was persistent, and on and one day she was in my office with the thick manuscript There was no escape, the only hope for me was that I was bad. would find after a few pages, which I could stop reading. Usually I can do that, the first section is usually sufficient. My only fear was that maybe this was not bad enough, or even just good enough so I through should read ... In this case, I read through and through first with the feeling that it was not bad enough to stop when a glimmer of curiosity, when a growing enthusiasm and eventually disbelief.. I never thought possible that So it could be good. " [4] The book was finally published by the Louisiana State University Press in 1980 . it won in 1981 the Pulitzer Prize . Although Tulane University in New Orleans has a collection of Toole's papers, and some early writings are found, the location of the original manuscript unknown. Category:1980 books